The sensor in the Sony A7R IV has been through tough tests at DXOMARK, and it came through with flying colors.
If you’ve been thinking about buying the Sony A7R IV, but wanting to see the real-world reviews like the ones we do, as well as lab tests like the ones DXOMARK performs, then today is your lucky day. DXOMARK has announced that testing on the sensor found in Sony’s latest Megapixel monster is complete. Where does the Sony A7R IV land in their league table? Find out after the break.
Sony shocked the photography community when they announced the Sony A7R IV earlier this year. This is a camera nobody saw coming, and nobody really expressed a need for thanks to the already excellent (and still relatively new) A7R III. Yet, here we are now with a 61.2 Megapixel behemoth that sits at the top of the pile for Sony. How does it perform, though? In our first impressions test (full review will be coming soon), we were impressed with its output, which, at the time, was from a pre-production model. So, let’s see just what DXOMARK had to say about its performance.
As you can see in the graphic above, DXOMARK has awarded the Sony A7R IV an overall score of 99 points. This is one of the best performing cameras DXOMARK has tested, but this score only lands the camera in joint-fifth place alongside the Nikon Z7, and beneath the Sony A7R III in their league table. The Sony scored 26 Bits for portrait photography (color depth), 14.8Evs for landscape photography (dynamic range), and 3344 for sports (high ISO performance).
The other cameras at the top of the table are the Hasselblad X1D 50c, the Pentax 645Z, the Panasonic S1R, the Nikon D850, the Sony A7R III, and the Nikon Z7. All of these cameras are so close to each other in terms of performance that you could go out and buy any of them and produce images virtually identical to the rest of them. Most of the scores for these cameras are within half a point of each other. The only real differences come with high ISO performance, where both the Hasselblad and the Pentax still dominate. The Sony A7R III does beat out the newer A7R IV though, with its overall score of 100 and its higher ISO score.
So what can we learn from this? Honestly, if you have a Sony A7R III, you’re probably better off sticking with what you have unless you just have to have more Megapixels. If you’re trying to decide between the two for a new camera, you might be better off buying the A7R III and putting the extra money towards some new glass, unless you want the deeper grip and a little extra resolution from the A7R IV. At the end of the day, you simply can’t go wrong with either of these cameras. It will all come down to preference on feeling in the hand, and the lens selection available for each camera. Will these findings help sway you one way or another? Lets us know in the comment section below.